Everyone got a good laugh last week when cops finally noticed the small pigs surreptitiously added to the decal design four years ago that ended up on 30 state police cruisers. The best part: inmates doctored the stickers at a correctional facility print shop.
The Shumlin administration took the shenanigans in stride, but a new group wants the governor to do one better – keep the pig decals in circulation.
“The Shumlin administration has gone on record saying that they intend to destroy the decals that were doctored to show a pig shape instead of spots on a cow within the state seal,” reads a press release fired off this afternoon by “Save the Vermont Pigs.”
Corrections officials have said they’ll take the $800 cost to replace the decals out of a fund used to purchase supplies and equipment for prison work programs.
Cid Sinclair, co-founder of “Save the Vermont Pigs,” says Peter Shumlin ought to “handle the matter in a manner more consistent withVermont’s famous laid back demeanor.”
“I think folks generally feel like the Shumlin administration is missing an opportunity to have some fun and acknowledge an awesomely played prank,” Sinclair said in a written statement. “Vermonthas a tradition and history of quirky events that are a part of what makes us unique as Vermonters. People feel like this should be revered as another chapter in that tradition.”
The Save the Vermont Pigs Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheVermontPigs – already has more than 500 members, and an online petition pleading with Shumlin to keep the pig decals has about 200 names.
Sinclair claims that Shumlin’s communications team had attempted to squelch the burgeoning movement by removing from the governor’s Facebook page a post from Save the Vermont Pigs. After some admonitions from Save the Pig diehards, the post, according to Sinclair, “magically reappeared.”
We haven’t had occasion to ask the governor about the latest developments, so it remains to be seen where these little piggies will go.
